Abstract
Abstract It has been five years since the first strikes of Deliveroo workers in London in 2016. Since then, workers have continued to organise. The campaigns have involved five different aspects: first, wildcat strike action; second, networks and internationalisation; third, union organising with the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (iwgb); fourth, legal campaigning; and fifth, wider leverage campaigns. What is less understood so far is the different strengths and weaknesses of these aspects, and how they have contributed to the build of workers’ self-organisation and power at Deliveroo. This article explores the different aspects and considers the effectiveness of each. It concludes by considering what can be learned from these struggles for the understanding of platform work and trade union organising today.
Highlights
Deliveroo is a food delivery platform that started in London
We focus on understanding how union organising has developed with workers who joined the IWGB (Independent Workers Union of Great Britain) Couriers and Logistics Branch during the 2016 strikes
Cant’s (2018a) analysis showed that Deliveroo workers were much more prone to taking strike action than other workers in the economy: ‘A rough estimation suggests that approximately 42% more working days were lost to strike action per worker in Deliveroo than in the total UK workforce over the period from September 2016 to August 2017.’
Summary
Deliveroo is a food delivery platform that started in London. There has been a growth of worker organising that has experimented with different tactics. Over the past five years, this project has involved different attempts to build worker power at Deliveroo with a range of tactics and strategies. In order to address these questions, the article presents new and existing empirical research. It starts with a review of the literature on platform work. It moves through the different dynamics of struggle at Deliveroo: wildcat strikes, networks and internationalisation, attempts at union organising, the legal campaign, and leverage and the Deliveroo IPO. The article concludes by considering what can be learned from these dynamics
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